Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/96

Rh The aspect on the north side, is seen in Photog. No. 302 (Coll. Roy. Soc.), looking towards the S.E., and that of the east end in Photog. No. 303 (Coll. Roy. Soc). In the latter a number of the fallen walls, &c., are visible, and, to an eye that has become educated to such observation, affords evidence of the general wave-path, from a little south of S.W.; as about being described.

The Photogs. No. 304 and No. 305 (Coll. Roy. Soc.) of the market-place, convey the extent to which the place has suffered. The damage done was very diffused over every part of the town, though greatest upon the free lying flanks, to the east, west, and N.W., and many buildings are prostrated or fractured; but the intensity of the shock was obviously reduced here, a good deal below that, nearer the origin, and at the other side of the Apennine ridge.

A greater amount of popular notoriety was given to the supposed destruction at Potenza than it deserved, owing to the tragical circumstances connected with the unfortunate political prisoners in the prison, whom the local authorities (responsible first of all for their safe keeping) did not feel themselves authorized to remove from the tottering walls, until some of them had been buried beneath them. Out of a population of above 12,000, however, the deaths only amounted to about twenty-two, a sufficient proof of diminished action, when compared with Montemurro, for example.

I proceeded to the Intendenzia (Photog. No. 306, Coll. Roy. Soc), and delivering my credentials from Naples, obtained letters to the Sotti Intendenti of the Communes, far to the north and N.W., and proceeded thence, to examine